The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1887-05-12
Welded IN DEATH.

Welded IN DEATH.
Across the level tongue Of land from
which the battle-scarred. earthquake
shaken city of Charleston looks East
ward stretch the grass-coyered mounds
which are all that is left Of the mighty
Notifications that Lee and Beauregard
built and armed nearly quarter OF .
century ago. Approaching the bank
Tapped BY the lazy wavelets Of the
Ashley. these traces Of the defensive
works Of that era run Northward Of =
peaceful battle-ground in which the
dropping branches Of the magnolia and
palmetto trees sweep the tops OF the
stones that record the names OF men
and women who have found rest be-
meath that sod in the generations that
have passed since the stalwart and
splendid Huguenot pilgrims who had
escaped Carriers massacre established
the city and the state. A perpetual
peace dwells upon the spot; the fra
GRANGE of roses and magnolias per-
fumes the atmosphere; the remnants of
the forts have been smoothed by the
indomitable hand of time into fitting
semblance with the scene; it is difficult
even to find upon the veterans Of the
arboreal growth the scars Of the shot
and shell that once whistled and
screamed from the great guns Of Dahl
gren's monitors and Gilmore's batteries
over this lovely God 5 Acre Of the
Southern land; and between the LEAKAGE
of the sturdy trees the visitor catches
glimpses of famous old st. Michaels
spire and all the broad and beautiful vista
Of river. city and sea that extends to
the horizon of the Atlantic.
1t is the ancient and venerable ceme-
terry of Christ Church Parish, around
which Beauregard drew his military
lines of decentralization and SO brought
the rude and noisy hustle Of war into
intrusion upon the everlasting sleep of
South Carolinians who had preached
notification and talked states rights
five lustrums before speech became
powder and shot and bloodshed.
The westering sun bathes in golden
glory one of the most prominent monu-
ments in this city of the dead slend-
er and graceful marble shaft GROWING
turfed hillock that from time to time
blooms with the profiigate beauty of
flowers that bespeaks assiduous and in
defatigable care for the memory Of the
tenant of the tomb. On the face that
is turned toward the sunset is the in
scription:
MARGARET PICKENs De ROCHELLE
DEC path, 1864.
When South Carolina seeded from
the Union and lit the fires of civil war
her governor was Francis w. Pickens, q
member of the slave holding aristocracy
that boosted of its blue blood, and, like
the feudal system of which it was a
modern simulacrum. occasionally devel-
oped noble and admirable types Of men
and women. To that rank Governor
Pickens was entitled and of all the fair
and lovable women to whom his dis
tinguished family had given birth NO
one was sweeter or more beautiful than
the daughter. who, when Major Ander-
son lowered the flag on Sumter, was
budding into charming womanhood.
1t has been truly said that the war was
prolonged by the courage and persis-
tency with which the women Of the
South imbned The men. No history has
ever adequately told the sacrifices tina,
they made. the sufferings that they pa
tiently endured to cheer and prompt the
soldiers and sailors who served under
the banner of the lost cause. Nowhere
between the Potomac and the Mexican
Gulf was was their spirit of answering
devotion more manifest and active than
in the capital of the Keystone State Of
the Southern Confederacy; and there
was nc patriotic project mooted in which
women could share to which Margare,
Pickens did net contribute.
TYPE OF SOUTHERN BEAUTY.
Turning back to the Charlerton news
papers of the war epoch, her name il
found hundred times upon their worn
and fading pages, In 1862 the women
of the city turned their jewclry, their
diamonds-gems that had come down
to them from their Huguenot and Eng.
fish ancestors-their silver plate and in
Vulnerable articles of bric-a-brac into
the money that paid for the ironclad
ship-of war Palmetto State that or
January 81, 1868, sunk the Unitec
States gunboat Mercedita in battle
in Charleston Harbor. In the enter
prise of raising the construction funt
Margaret Pickens was proficient ant
untiring. She stripped herself of he1
jewelry, and she figured in leading
capacity at the fair or bazaar at whicl
the women sold their treasures tina
THE Ladies Gunboat'' might be built
A bright young Englishman, who ha'
come into Charleston as an officer o
one of the blockade runners. saw her Of
that occasion and worshiped he
through the medium OF letter to
friend in Liverpool that found its wa
into the columns of the Liverpool
Mercury. He wrote:
II have seen tonight the loveliest gil
LQ0L Iuf eyes 0t01 H0ACA uPOA 0A0 VIC 0A6u
Of her was worth the guinea of q sailor
wages thatI paid for the queer little howe
received from her hand and that is lynn
before me as / write. The picture Of he
face which l hold in memory would max
me willing at any time to take the chance
Of being caught or shot to pieces hy th
Yankees in lodging the blockade. She
rather tall, clean built as Shanghai clipper
her ewes and hair are nut-brOwn and he
voice az soft as that Of any Of the Minorc
girls"
For nineteen months, beginning wit
June, 1853, Charleston suffered tn
most prolonged and tremendous BON
bardment ever inflicted upon an Amer
can city. All the lower part OF tn
town was swept by day and night b
Gilmore's 3OO-pounder shells and fol
saken by its population. The roar {
the artillery fire upon Fort Sumpter an
the other defensive works was well mig
incessant, while the battles upon Morr
T,lool Gov Tho v,occoSSion If Fort Wac